00:00When you look at the statistics, in 2023, there were nearly 6,443 road fatalities, so
00:16meaning on average 18 deaths in road accidents every day.
00:22Road accidents constitute a serious public health challenge to our nation.
00:29In 2003, accidents were the fifth principal cause of death in Malaysia.
00:36And in that year, transport accidents remained within the top five, actually at fourth place.
00:46Not much has changed in 20 years.
00:48What about in 2022?
00:53In 2022, Malaysia recorded one road accident per minute, or 1,494 accidents per day, and
01:04it involved one death in every 86 minutes.
01:10So in view of these staggering statistics, I'd like to call upon the Ministry of Transport
01:17as the lead policy decision agency to re-examine the issue of road safety.
01:26In every of these accidents, there were three critical causes.
01:33They are human factors, mechanical and engineering factors, while road conditions cannot be overlooked.
01:43Driver behaviour or human factor is one of the leading causes of accidents.
01:48According to a report by Kunia Insurance, the five most common causes of accidents related
01:55to driver's behaviour are speeding, using mobile phone while driving, distracted driving,
02:04recklessness, dangerous or aggressive driving and beating the red light.
02:10Oftentimes, the driver's behaviour was influenced by the number of trips made, which led to
02:16fatigue, resulting with sleepiness and carelessness.
02:23So in view of the recent fatal accidents involving trailer containers, not referring specifically
02:32to any one of them, other factors related with the mechanical aspect of the trailer
02:39container, be it overloading, or the structure of the trailer, or how the container was loaded
02:48and how secure the container was.
02:51The manner in which the 20ft container was loaded onto the 40ft trailer container could
02:58explain why the container fell off the trailer or the accident occurred.
03:05Loading a 20ft container at the end of a 40ft container defies the law of physics regarding
03:14the centre of gravity.
03:17This probably caused by the container to spin, as you have seen just now, and tumble away
03:24from the trailer, especially when the trailer was negotiating a bend.
03:33So like to ask, we like to know, was the container twist lock 40, or did the twist lock properly
03:42lock the container to the trailer?
03:47Were there sufficient locks to fasten the lock, the load securely to the vehicle?
03:53As I mentioned just now, I have been asked by the members of the public who have raised
03:58and draw to my attention that despite such concerns, and with the numbers of road accidents
04:05involving heavy vehicles, such heavy trailers continue to roam the streets and highways.
04:13The authorities need to probe the structure and the integrity of the trailer container.
04:18They need to uncover if many of these trailer containers might have been modified or did
04:24not have the necessary safety features, nor follow safety guidelines to ensure that the
04:31containers were loaded securely.
04:34These human and mechanical errors and faults call for a deeper investigation and review
04:39of the operating procedures for trailer container vehicles.
04:45It is now the responsibility of the relevant authorities to take a hard look on road safety,
04:52especially when it leads to fatality.
04:56With more than sufficient authorities and agencies conducting licensing, enforcement,
05:04education and research, we still need to review whether these authorities and agencies are
05:10coordinating their action plan.
05:15We have, as I said, many agencies like the Road Transport Department, Malaysia Institute
05:24of Road Safety and Research, MIROS, and Land Public Transport Agency.
05:31All these departments and agencies have roles in the whole spectrum of road safety, including
05:38licensing, vehicle inspection, education and enforcement, and research and accident
05:46investigations are all under the wing of the MOT now.
05:51Therefore, inter-agency coordination should be smoother and should not be a problem.
05:59So I would like to bring to the attention of the authorities some recommendations.
06:06While this mammoth task confronts us, it is even more important for the government
06:11to fund more innovative methods to lower the number of road accidents, and especially those
06:17involving heavy vehicles.
06:21Measures such as the more stringent checks by Postpacom, introducing measures to implement
06:34the recommendations by the MIROS should and must be done immediately.
06:41We also call upon the authorities and agencies to better educate drivers, be it motorists,
06:49motorcyclists, bus drivers, lorry drivers and truck drivers.
06:55Ultimately, it is the lives of the road users which take precedence.
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